They spent the day in the passageways outside of the Meadow. And there was nothing.

There was nothing but winding passageways, new ways to get lost, the thrum of panic in their hearts as they made sure to be back hours before the walls closed. They ran. They used all of their strength and bolted as fast as they could. Newt and Hedy ran together, keeping pace, carefully turning and keeping track of their placements.

"Nothing. We're trapped," Alice said gloomily at dinner, lying down because she claimed she was agonizingly sore.

"If it's a maze, it stands to reason that there'd be something outside it," Tim said, and she agreed.

Nick watched them carefully, and Meg and Clint looked nervous. "But what if it's just a labyrinth, with no end?" Nick asked bluntly.

"What's the point of a maze with no end?" Minho demanded. "That's too twisted. I still think this is a test. Like we're lab rats."

"Testing what?" Hedy demanded, sick and tired of his ridiculous theories. "Our ability to get out? Our ability to create a society? Or, is it some big joke, like, how many teenagers does it take to get out of a maze?"

Saph had made soup, a thin, runny liquid that they ate gratefully with bread and water. "Not seein' much of a punchline here m'self."

"I can't believe you went out there," Meg blurted. "Was it scary?"

Hedy shrugged. "It's just a maze. There's nothing interesting we could find."

Minho brooded for a second. "We need to keep going out. We should split up, now that we know there's nothing dangerous."

Hedy immediately flared up at that idiotic idea, but Newt's hand across the fire stilled her. "Now, Mini," he reasoned. "There's no knowing what's buggin' out there for now. One day don't tell us much. We can keep goin' out there, but I'm still likin' the idea of a bit of a buddy system deal."

"I wanna keep goin' out," Alice piped up. "It's more helpful than I feel in here, and Minho said I'm fast, right?"

"For a little shank," Minho said fondly. Alice glowed with the praise.

They ate, quietly, with Clint offering do clean the dishes. He was as much of a nurturer as Saph, she noted. That was something they'd need to keep in mind as he got more comfortable. Saph agreed, and Tim went to help him.

"What do you think?" Nick asked her, as everyone else began to wander off, getting ready for bed.

She sucked her teeth. "I think I'm gonna keep going out there," she answered. "But I wonder how long we're gonna be on a chase after nothing."

They were out there for a week before they relented and slit up. It was safe, they reasoned. Whatever was blocked out at night obviously didn't come during the day. The rule was be back before sunset. Keep the best map you could. It was fine. Everything was fine.

It was the day before the next Greenie was due to come up that the routine was broken. Hedy hadn't ventured out far – she'd lost her water bottle, like a fool, and had to turn back in order to prevent dehydration. Easily completing the small map she'd made, she went to go pick up the vegetables from Tim, to bring them to Saph, to talk about how she needed new shoes and to get a new water bottle.

It was the scream that sent Hedy running, forgetting her thirst.

Alice's scream.

The girl had always been fearful. Her shrieks and cries and groans often echoed through the Glade. At best, she was a complainer. At worst, she was a pain in the ass. But she was a First, she was an explorer, and she was their friend. And hand in hand with friendship was the ability to decipher her feelings. This was not a shriek that accompanied seeing a bug or one of the goats nipping at her.

This was genuine terror.

Hedy dropped the basket she'd been carrying, probably bruising and ruining all of the few vegetables Tim had gathered, but she bolted, following the echoing shriek. As she ran, she saw Nick's face flash past her, saying something, but she didn't have time to watch his expression or hear what he said. She followed the cries of the most fragile girl, feeling her lungs burn and her feet go numb from slamming on the hard, cold slabs, feeling pebbles and rocks bite into her bare feet. It didn't matter, even though she felt her tough flesh get torn open, and her heartbeat was throbbing through her chest, and she didn't know Alice's section, but she could do nothing but panic and hope that she was okay, that she'd seen a large spider, that nothing was wrong but the girl's usual idiot antics. In her heart, she knew none of it was true. Something was wrong. Her throat was dry and her heart throbbed with the pain of adrenaline, but still though, she ran, searching frantically, following the echoes of moans, until she nearly ran smack into the source.

It was Alice, but it also wasn't. Not all of her. Where Alice's right arm should've been, there was nothing but a hunk of torn, battered flesh, dripping blood, as if something had tried to eat her but spat her out. She didn't even hear Hedy's arrival, notice her almost slam into her, too busy sliding against the wall, walking steadily back home. Back to them. Back to safety. Back to Minho and Saph and Newt and Nick and Hedy and all the Greenies.

Wrong. Wrong. Hedy had been so utterly wrong about this girl's strength. Never before had Hedy been so dead wrong and the regret slammed into her like a ton of bricks. Despite Hedy's running, though, despite Alice's strength, newfound or inherent, there was no way she wasn't going to die.

"Alice?" Hedy almost vomited at the sight. Raising her head, Alice met her eyes, though they were blank and took several seconds to focus on Hedy. The girl's face was puffy and scraped, swollen with tears and a beating, the blood vessels around her eyes popped. Hedy's heart could not have beaten any more rapidly.

"Hedy?" Alice hiccoughed, before tripping.

Rushing forward, Hedy gritted her teeth and lifted the girl into her arms, holding her like a baby. "I'm gonna get you back to the Glade, Alice. It's okay. It's Hedy, it's me. I'm here," she was cooing. It did not make sense. It didn't matter.

"Hedy, I'm scared, I'm so scared." Alice sobbed, wasting precious energy on her hysterics. But she was going to die and crying or not crying would not make a difference, so Hedy let her wail. "I'm gonna die, aren't? Oh, shuck, I'm gonna die. I'm dead already. That thing… it killed me, didn't it?"

Hedy's arms were almost immediately exhausted from Alice's weight, but with every second, the girl was getting lighter. A good portion of her hand was gone and she was quickly bleeding out, spilling her life's blood onto Hedy's legs and into her shoes. "What thing, Alice? Tell me about it." Hedy didn't know when it had happened, or how Alice had gotten away from whatever it was, but it didn't matter now. There were no words she could give the terrified girl, who kept babbling and crying, and she didn't have the strength to walk and talk anyway. It was best just to keep her talking, to get information, and to keep Alice awake.

"A spider," Alice sobbed. "A giant spider… it killed me, Hedy. Minho always said a spider can't hurt you. But he was wrong. It hurt me so bad, it stabbed me and it bit me and it was so big... oh, it was so freakin' big, Hedy.." As quickly as her weighed legs could carry her, she walked towards home, leaving a trail of blood behind her. Like Hansel and Gretel, she thought dazedly, unable to even marvel at the memory, or to try and grasp any further memories. But the blood was dripping down her legs and pants and making her slip. But Hedy kept walking, clutching Alice in her arms, as the girl's hysterics slowly quieted. She no longer cooed at her, no longer had the strength to do anything but carry her.

The Maze opening was there, and suddenly she was in the Glade, and Nick and Clint and Minho were there, and Saph was pulling her away from Alice and she and Newt were cleaning her up and there was funeral arrangements and she picked the spot herself, the numbness in her arms spreading to her entire body and her mind and she dug a hole for Alice.

Because in the fifteen minutes it had taken for Hedy to carry her back, Alice had died.

Nick tried to stop her, tried to get her to sit down, but Hedy refused, didn't want anyone touching her. And in that moment, she loved Minho more than she loved any other person because he simply took another shovel and helped her dig until it was large enough to place the girl. In that moment, she loved him more than she could even imagine ever loving anyone again because he sat with her while she cried and didn't say anything at all.

x

"We were wrong," Minho said hoarsely.

"I guess they aren't nocturnal…" Saph's normally cheerful voice was low, scratchy, as if she'd been crying. Together, she and Minho sat, his arm curled around her, her head nearly buried in his armpit. Hedy sat across from them, staring into space, but still somehow registering them.

"She died because we got too comfortable." Hedy's voice seemed strangely toneless and flat to her own ears. "Alice died because we let our guards down. Minho, you're not going out there tomorrow."

For once, they did not break into an argument. "She didn't belong out there. You were right." Saph answered.

"It doesn't matter who was right. From now on, nobody goes past those Walls," Hedy said firmly. "Nobody, unless they prove they're quick enough, on their feet and in their heads.."

"Does that include you?" Minho asked, brows raising inquisitively.

"Yeah," was all she said. "From now on, that includes me."

"We still don't know what did that to her," Nick spoke up. "Or what it's capable of."

"What's capable of causing that much grief," Clint said quietly, looking at them. "Only a monster."

"A Griever," Saph answered. "There's no word for it. It's just a Griever."

"Alice used to say she heard them at night," Hedy confessed. "I never believed her. I can't… I was such a slinthead bastard to her."

"It's just your way," Nick answered her seriously. "Alice knew as well as any of us."

"That I'm a total raging bitch?"

"Yeah," Minho said seriously. "The same way she's supremely freaking annoying. We all have our shit, dude. Get over it. You sucking as a person has nothing to do with Alice's death."

"You were the one that found her," Newt reasoned. "You were the last bloody person she ever saw, and she was grateful, even just a bit."

"You're not the warmest, fuzziest, but you carried her back, Hedy. It counts." Clint's words were comforting.

"Dude, it's not about you!" Minho snapped. "Stop wallowing in guilt, because you're not the only one who feels it."

Despite the comforting words of her friends, it was Minho's sensible rudeness that shocked sense back into Hedy. He was right. Feeling a little lighter, she nodded.

"I'm headed to bed. Tomorrow, the new Greenie comes, Hedy, so we can't be too sad." Newt interjected, looking as forlorn and as frightened as the rest of them.

X

It wasn't her first day alone.

Last month had been an intense wake up call. She was far more alert this time. Each rush of wind through the corners of the walls, she felt, she heard, she changed her pace. She felt as if she were one of the pieces of stone, attached to the wall forever. It was dark and dank there, and it suited her mood perfectly. The sun rarely touched each crevice, and somehow, ivy was beginning to sprout.

It was hard to imagine the force of nature required to put these enormous walls over real, regular earth. Had people once lived here? A year ago? Ten years ago? Centuries ago? Jogging through the section, marking the walls with chalk, she wandered through the section. Minho had helped her begin to map it out yesterday, said the walls changed constantly. So she stayed alert, marking her turns, slowly making her way to the center. It was around midday, with the sun high above her, when she saw Newt.

It was a welcome surprise – they'd been running around in here for months now, several times a week, between their regular duties and helping out, and they hadn't gone back for another week since Alice's death. Minho decided he wanted to go out more regularly now, insisted on exploring.

"The Maze is here for a reason, and it's our job to solve it," he'd insisted. "We have to go out every day, keep a map, try and find clues." From then on out, they mapped their routes religiously, daily, going in as early as possible and staying out as late as was safe. They knew at any moment, they could die.

Forcing the morbid thoughts from her mind, Hedy looked up, checking the sun's position in the sky. However, before she could begin to figure out her direction, she saw Newt in the distance. He must've climbed some of the ivy, she thought wryly. It was a good idea – checking from the aerial standpoint.

Slowing down, moving from running to jogging to walking, slowing down, she watched Newt balance, his small steps forward, his uncertainty. He stood perhaps fifty feet above her and maybe a hundred feet away. As she stared though, she changed her mind. Perhaps height was a bad idea - Grievers could see them more easily.

Had he seen something? She couldn't call his name for the same reason – the robotic nature of the Grievers left them cautiously silent while in the Maze and she knew he couldn't see her, hidden behind ivy and walls and shadows. But she tried to find her way to where he stood, trying to remember the pattern she'd been assigned, the changes mixing up in her head. She looked up, to double check, when she thought she was close, and her already rapidly-beating heart, so healthy and thumping with exercise, stopped in her chest.

She watched him fall.

Fall was the wrong word, though –she watched him step off, calmly, as if there was more firm footing there, as if he were sure of his steps. But then he immediately plummeted, and she heard his agonized gasp as he hit the ground, echoing more loudly than the crack of one or more bones. He didn't scream. He moaned: a long, eerie sound, and she ran again, her skin suddenly cold and her thoughts cleared.

Sinfully, her first thought was: Why do I have to do this again. A selfish thought, but she fought it down as best she could. She beat the dust as quickly as she could until she made it to him. Two precious minutes she'd taken to get to him, groaning, fist in his mouth, bleeding as he bit on it to fight the sounds threatening to bubble out. He didn't see her, eyes squeezed shut and he couldn't hear her, too absorbed in what she could only imagine was unbearable. She didn't cry though – her chest felt as though it caved it.

"Oh no, Newt. Shuck. Damn it, Newt, you freaking shank." Those were the only words that would come to her, and she hiccoughed out a dry sob. "Why would you do that?"

"I'm… sorry…" he whispered quietly, the pain probably blinding him. "Just… leave me be for a blink, will ya?"

"Newt," she said quietly, feeling the pain he felt deep in her chest, breaking her heart – but it kept happening. It wasn't a clean break, it was a pain that seemed stuck, like it had paused and wouldn't budge. What he had done… she knew. She understood exactly what he had been thinking, and she didn't want to verbalize it. "Why did you think you could… without you… Newt…"

She wasn't a poet. She couldn't say a sweet thing like he could, or something clever like Minho would. She wasn't Saph, who could comfort him, nor was she Alice, who would've stroked his hair and whispered to him but whom instead was dead, as dead as he wanted to be.

He'd done it on purpose – he'd stepped with a knowing and a precision. It had been a jump. Newt had just tried to kill himself before her eyes.

Newt, the brightest of the bunch, the kindest, the one who kept Nick's temper in check and had buried Alice with her, couldn't take it anymore. As desperately selfish as it was, she wondered how they'd go on without him – she did not just ache for him, but for herself, for Minho, for Nick and Saph and all the newbies and the ones to come. "We need you… I need you. Me and Minho need you." It was all she could choke out – her thoughts were so jumbled, and she wasn't able to offer anything clearer, anything truer. Still, though, it was perhaps the most honest expression of emotion she'd offered anyone since she came here. He opened his eyes, and the additional sensory overload had him stiffening and letting out a deep groan that rumbled from his chest.

She thought of the game Minho and Saph played – who could compliment her and make her blush. They kept up a tally. Newt played too, sometimes, raining her with compliments that would've sounded just as sincere even if he was telling them to a tree. He always sounded so genuine. She tried to mimic him. "Newt, you're the bravest, and the kindest, and the smartest and you always have something helpful to say, and you always put in work, and even Minho respects your opinion, and oh, Newt." She wiped tears from her eyes – they were dripping onto his chest and she felt her nose dripping too. "Newt, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell anyone you were hurting so bad?"

Her words were not so much directed at him as much as her own thoughts vocalizing, desperate to share with him, to take his pain, to express her own, to let him know that he was so important.

The shame that flashed across his pained face hurt her chest and he didn't answer her question. Instead he said: "I won't buggin' make it back in time. We've got 'bout an hour. Ya… gotta go back. Minho'll worry about you."

"He'll worry about you!" she snapped at him. She sat up, her full weight resting on her still throbbing legs. Quickly, she swung off of him and pulled him up, trying to be gentle. He groaned, and she strained. He was heavy – Newt was tall, and broad, with ropey muscles that strained. He seemed tired now, and she panicked.

"Hedy…" he said it quietly, and she leaned close to hear the whispered words, his head rolling back as she held up his torso. "I made my choice, it's time to live with it."

She glared at his wording. "Or die with it? Forget that. I'm taking you home, you big bastard."

He looked at his crooked ankle, at her shaking arms trying to pull him up, at her tear-stained face, and for a moment the pain seemed to have cleared and his expression softened with sympathy, with compassion. She held his against hers for a moment, her forehead pressed against his cheek. Even when he was hurt, even when it was his turn to rage and cry and give up, he cared about her, her feelings. "Hedy, you can't carry me." he said it softly, but with finality. Like he was giving an order instead of telling her his thoughts.

"Bullshit!" she pulled away and yanked him up, ignoring his surprised hiss of pain, though his agonized expression was immediately burned into the inside of her eyelids, and threw him over her back, lifting his legs around her waist and hooking her arms around them. It was the least graceful thing she'd ever done, the least gentle.

"I'm gonna slow ya down," he insisted, and buried his face in her shoulder, where she felt a hot wetness seep into her shirt and suddenly he was crying, bawling his eyes out like a child, his entire body shaking. Squeezing him tighter, she held him as close as she could, trying to offer some of her strength to him, trying to tell him wordlessly that it was a lie – he didn't slow her down. In fact, he was the only reason she kept going on, sometimes, when Minho seemed too far ahead of her and Nick and Saph weren't even part of the race. He was level with her, and she needed that. He hiccoughed. "I'm so bloody sorry."

"Slim it and save your breath." she grunted, trying not to wheeze. The words sounded unkind, but she could not walk and talk at the same time now, she stopped, leaning his good side against the closest wall for a moment. "I'm never leaving you." He continued to cry and the noise broke her heart, the quiet swallows. There was nothing she could say, nothing she could verbalize, so she held him and resolutely put one foot in front of the other, trying not to shake, feeling the weight in her hips immediately, on her feet. Gravity suddenly felt more intense and she gritted her teeth, squeezing at his skin, holding him close. They had a long ways to go back to any of the gates. "Just let it all out."

He howled then, and neither cared if any Grievers heard. It didn't matter anymore. Suddenly death was not a faraway dream or terror, but just another part of the day, something that they wouldn't be able to fight no matter what form it came in. He sobbed, clinging to her, and her shoulder was hot and soaking and sticky with mucus and tears and saliva as he purged himself, arm wrapped around her neck and face burrowed into the crevice where shoulder met neck and finally fell into a long-deserved dreamless sleep, put under from the pain of his ankle and the hurt in his heart.

x

Minho tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the other two. They were late. Damn late. Frighteningly late.

He had Nick at the East Door, waiting for Newt, and he stood at the West Door, waiting for Hedy. Despite himself, he was worried. He wished he could go with her every day, but until more shanks came up in the box, they were screwed. Nick and Hedy already thought it was a useless endeavor, that they should be helping Tim garden or Meg with the animals, or hanging out with the newbie Zora.

Nick was needed here, but Minho needed Hedy as a Runner - Clint was needed here now that they had medical supplies, and needed the same. Alice, the only other possible candidate, had been killed by the very creature they hid from. He still gnashed his teeth at that. It had been said as a joke, but he'd told her he'd protect her. The scared girl who had screamed his name so loudly it had echoed and resounded in his eardrums. He still had nightmares about it, but he didn't tell anyone. Not even Newt knew why he was suddenly always the first one awake now.

So when Hedy said to him, resolutely, that she wanted to be a Runner for as long as he needed her, he had been in no position to disagree. She was in the best shape of all the girls there – Saph was too small, too thin, and she was the only one who could cook. Meg was terrified of the Maze, and she couldn't keep up anyway. After Alice, he couldn't bear her fear. Zora – she was new, and he didn't want to try testing out the Greenbeans. Their awkwardness, their fear reminded him far too much of Alice. Brave, not because they understood their fear, but because they didn't.

He waited, still. Saph brought him a sandwich and some water as he waited, even sat with him for a few minutes, for once, her smart mouth miraculously silent. When she stood, she ruffled a hand in his hair, the sensation soft and intimate. He behaved as though he couldn't feel it, but he took comfort in it. Saph was soft and nurturing and giving, all the things he wasn't and sometimes wanted.

The doors were going to close in half an hour. He could tell by the sun – guessing was like a second nature to him now. But as he looked away from the bright light overhead, burning blackness into his vision – he saw movement. Too slow for a Griever. He blinked again, rapidly, trying to acclimate his eyes back to the shadows, and he stood.

It was Newt – but it wasn't. He could see nothing but a mop of blond hair, long and greasy, sending a rush of relief through him, but those perfect legs were definitely not Newt's. They belonged to Hedy – tall, dark and gorgeous, sweating, with Newt on her back, curled around her like an enormous blanket. Every step she took was a labor, one in front of the other, and he bolted. She hardly heard him, Newt's heavier skull weighing down on her neck, putting her into a crouch, hunched over and wobbly. He ran faster than he'd run in weeks, despite having already gone through the Maze once today, and made it to her in seconds, nearly knocking into her. At his presence, she looked up, craning her neck awkwardly.

"Shuck!" He hissed, trying to untangle Newt's long limbs from Hedy's stiffer body. "Here, I'll carry him." He tried to do it as painlessly as possible, but she was so tired and shaky that there was no neat way to do it. Yanking Newt into his arms, he only half-heard her cry of: "Be careful!" as he jogged, depositing the unconscious Newt safely, ten feet away from the doors, and running back in.

She was hardly five steps from where she'd just been, and he scooped her up too, feeling the noodley consistency of her muscular limbs when he grabbed her up and carried her inside. There wasn't any noise, no arguments – she was too tired to even fight with him. She was lighter than he thought she'd be, or at least, lighter than Newt had been a second ago. Her head rested against his chest heavily, as if she had no more strength to hold it up, and he realized belatedly that she must have carried Newt the entire way back – at least a mile. He was pretty sure she hadn't even memorized the entirety of her section yet – how many dead ends had she carried Newt through?

"How far did you carry him?" he asked quietly, hating himself for not being there for Newt, for not being able to help Hedy.

"Found him around the Cliff." She replied weakly, eyes already closed, voice hardly more than a whisper. "I'm… beat." She said it with feeling, and closed her eyes. He winced. He should've been there – would've been there, if he hadn't lost the rest of his water and had to return early.

"I'm gonna take you right to bed." And then, ignoring her flinch, he yelled. "Nick! Clint! Jeff! Get Newt! Now! He's hurting!" He waited until he saw Clint bolting as fast as he could towards Newt, with Tim slower behind him.

He carried her to the Homestead, but she was already asleep by then.

It was strange, seeing the usually obstinate Hedy so pliant. Minho likened her to Nick the most, while Saph was more like him and Newt and Alice had definitely been cut from the same cloth. He tried to imagine Nick carrying Newt, and couldn't. Hedy was less closed off than he was, but they shared the same realism – what Newt privately called pessimism and Saph diplomatically referred to as introversion.

He left and ran back over to Clint and Jeff. They stared at him. "What the klunk happened to him?" Clint shook his head. "This ankle is near shattered and he has a sprain in his wrist and a huge bruise covering his back."

Minho shook his head helplessly. "Hedy is out for the count. She said she carried him back from the Cliff."

They had never been in the Maze, but they understood that it meant far. Jeff whistled.

"We just have to take him back to sleep it off." Clint's voice was grim. "I just set his leg and tied it, but there's nothing else we can do but let him heal. He's gonna be out of commission for a while. Not just running, but everything else around here too."

With that, Jeff and Clint carefully picked up the boy, and carried him back to his bed, Minho and Nick following closely behind. He looked in at Hedy while they were there. "Is she okay?" Nick asked worriedly, sending a sad look at Newt.

"She's just tired." Minho felt his voice growing faint. He left the two sleeping Gladers and the Med-Jacks and went to the kitchen.

One reason why he liked Saph was her tendency to never stop talking. When he entered the kitchen, she was singing. It was just random words in a random tune, but she was always cheerful, and he liked that. They all needed it. Even if it was annoying sometimes, better annoying than super depressing.

"Why Savvy," Newt would say at dinner, his accent exaggerated to sound as unintelligible as possible. "How 'bout ya grace us wi' a tune?"

And Saph would freeze and then turn to face him, bowing, and begin to singing – not that it could be called singing, since it was more or less her shouting and dancing without any rhythm – and winking at Hedy and Alice or Meg or Zora.

"I heard the ruckus, but I didn't want to swarm. I sent Zora to grab more herbs. What happened?" She asked, chopping vegetables, not even looking at him.

"Newt got all whacked up in the Maze, and Hedy carried him back." The best part about Saph was that she was imaginative – she didn't ask pointless questions he didn't feel like answering.

They sat for a while, quiet, except for Saph's humming. After nearly an hour, she broke into a real song, declaring: "I'm gonna make Minny's favorite dinner." she sang, banging her hands on the cutting board they had made her. "Even though he's usually a dumb slinthead." She turned and dropped a handful of chopped tomato into her bowl, raising her hand above her head and letting the juicy fruit fall into the bowl. "Because I'm his best friend and super awesome, and I know he's had a bad day!" Saph held the final note in her scratchy singing voice and turned, blowing him a kiss. "And I want to see his big ugly smile!"

Despite the mess he'd just been through, he grinned at that. "Who's the dumb, ugly slinthead?" he challenged, heart lifting at the thought of the vegetable soup she always made. It was juicy and the bread she made with it was crunchy and salty and it seemed to hit every spot he'd ever had. At this point, it was comfort food – the soup reminded him of the first time they'd ever eaten together, when they'd had nothing but condensed soup and had all been starving. The recipe had changed by a long shot – homemade broth, simmering vegetables, and spices that only added to the flavor. "At least I'm not a terrible cook."

She clutched at her heart. "Take that back, you cruel bastard."

"I mean, I've never burnt anything." He continued, grinning. She was too, waiting for him to finish. "Never cooked anything, either, but who's counting, right?"

Saph let out a cackle. "It's almost ready. Let those other shanks know that it's Minny's night tonight."

It wasn't possible to roll your eyes to the back of your head, but when Minho heard her call him that, he always tried to manage it. "Good that. Make sure I get my extra-large portion for my rough day."

"That portion'll be Hedy's. Now scoot."

He gathered them, slowly. Nick and Meg, who'd been gardening, and Clint who was restocking his supplies, and Hedy, who was still asleep. He figured it'd be better to let Newt sleep – they could make him a sandwich if he woke up before breakfast.

He stepped into the girl's room. It was dark now, and he concentrated on not tripping on any of the blankets at the door.

"Hedy." He called out, but she was still obviously knocked. Stepping even closer, he placed a hand on her shoulder to shake her up. "Dinner, shank."

Suddenly, she twitched, wrenching upwards and gasping. "Oh! Oh, Minho, it's only you. You scared the shit out of me."

Narrowing his eyes, he held a hand up for her to stand. She took it, and he shut the door behind them – the room was small enough for him to do that. He stared at her. "I'm the only other Runner, Hedy."

"And it's your job to know what happens in the Maze," she finished monotonously, not letting go of his hand. She wasn't a morning person, but the shock of her wake up had startled her into alertness. "It was… bad. I don't know anything, Minho. He was just there. It might've been a Griever, but there was nothing there when I found him." It wasn't that she liked lying, especially to Minho. This situation was different though – it was none of her business, and certainly none of Minho's. Newt was back and he would get better, and she would be there with him. That was that.

"Why didn't you run back and get me?"

"The doors closed maybe ten minutes after we got back." She gave him a dark look. "Do you really think that it would've been smarter run back here, search for your sorry ass, if you were even back, and then go back and find him?"

Minho scowled at that. "Just… I worried about you shanks."

Thinking back to Newt's words, she nodded. "You're a good Runner, Minho... and you're a good guy." Feeling uncomfortable, she added: "For a dumb slinthead."

Things were suddenly normal. "Slim it. C'mon, it's dinner time now. Saph made my soup."

Making a face, she followed him. "I'd rather go back to bed."

"How can you not love that junk? It's the best."

"I like spicy foods."

He paused for a split second – he hadn't known that. Then he continued on. "Well, too bad for you. It's my night, after that worry. You almost gave me some gray hairs, and damaging this pretty face is a capital offense."

She snorted. "Idiot."

Everything felt light at dinner, until Saph said, suddenly. "With all the greenies comin' every month, we need to lay more rules."

Meg and Tim perked up at the topic. Hedy suddenly felt Alice's loss very deeply. A new boy, from the looks of the pattern, would be here in a few days. Nick nodded. "I was thinkin' the same thing."

"So how about declaring Nick as the official Leader?"

Everyone nodded. He'd been so in all but name. But Minho objected. "What about Hedy? She's the same as him."

"If I'm a Runner, Min, I can't be a Leader. Not enough time in the day. Nick is more present, anyway."

Nick nodded thoughtfully. "Good that, but I agree with Minho. Let's say you're second in command. If anything happens to me…" he trailed off. Alice's presence was heavy again, and Hedy pushed her food around on her plate, swirling her soup.

"We need to set up more organization, though." Hedy looked around at them. "Like… jobs. But more organized. Instead of just doin' odd jobs, we should all be like Runners or like Saph. One job all the time."

Waiting for a more thorough explanation, everyone watched quietly. Meg piped up: "Like a Chairman?"

"Yeah. Like… Minho was the one who suggested running in the Maze in the first place, and he knows it better than me. So Min's the leader of the Runners, and if anybody else runs, Min's gotta train them. We dunno how many more people are coming, and if it's a lot, we gotta prepare for them. Obviously though, we can't just throw a greenbean in the Maze. So if they can cook, they can help Saph. Keeper of the Kitchen. And Meg, you're good with the animals, you can watch them. Tim, you're usually planting, so you can do the crops. Clint'll take care of the Med-Jacks. And as we get more people, we'll have more jobs, too. We can take shifts slopping."

"What about Newt?" Clint asked quietly.

"Well," Hedy continued reasonably. "He's been a Runner, and he was a First. I'd say he can do whatever needs to be done. When we build, he can help with that. When we do maps, he can help with that. When Tim or Meg need help, he can help with that. For now, he can do whatever he's up to. Even if that's nothing."

Nick looked like he was going to object, but Hedy shook her head. "My first… statement, I guess, as your second in command is to say drop it. You didn't see him." She shuddered a little, trying to hide the shiver that went up her spine and shook her. "It was bad. I thought he was going to die."

The group quieted. Hedy had been the one who watched Alice die, and that had been hardly a month ago. Zora watched them all carefully, not knowing Alice and hardly knowing the rest of them. Quietly, she sat back and ate, wondering at the strange, complicated world she'd been catapulted into.